• update grade not-z scripts to handle/be aware of winter terms
• update system page for (new)www
  • include information on db server
• upgrade mail VM to jessie/opensmtpd
• upgrade LDAP VMs to jessie
• create new router, using OpenBSD 5.7
• scripts to write:
  • user homedir backup pruning script
  • deploy studentlistcreate as a cron job once again
  • machine backup pruning script
  • status page monthly cycle script
  • revive gimmeh script, now that text access seems possible
• manual pages to write:
  • lab46 usage tutorial
    • include mercurial repository checkout info
    • include irc class chat tutorial
  • data structures, sll/dll library functions as their own manual pages

Some links of interest:

• LLVM
• GLglobe
• Heavens Above
• http://wiki.debian.org/kristian_jerpetjoen
• http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/alternative-to-200-lines-kernel-patch.html
• http://myproxylists.com/nix-brute-force
• My Plan9 Documentation page
• The Sokraits/Halfadder System Documentation page
• http://www.egghelp.org/commands/channels.htm
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/470617/get-current-date-and-time-in-php
• http://www.rjsystems.nl/en/2100.php
• BitSavers
• Time Zone HTML5 app
• http://toic.org/2009/01/18/reverse-ssh-port-forwarding/
• Divergent Thinking
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking
  • http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/QemuEmulator
• Socket Programming
  • http://www.linuxhowtos.org/C_C++/socket.htm
  • http://www.few.vu.nl/~jms/socket-info.html
  • http://www.lowtek.com/sockets/
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module40.html
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module42.html
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module43a.html
• ALIX
  • http://markshroyer.com/guides/router/
  • http://markshroyer.com/2010/12/openbsd-alix-via-ubuntu/
  • http://www.martinmellor.com/freebies/pinouts/IDE44_2_5_pinout.htm (IDE 44-pin pin-out)
• BeagleBoard
  • http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian
• Xen
  • http://www.tumfatig.net/20110125/running-openbsd-on-xen/ (OpenBSD HVM)
  • https://wiki.debian.org/Xen
• http://www.mydigitallife.info/fix-gmail-imap-invalid-credentials-or-web-login-requires-failure-error/
• http://manoharvanga.com/hackme/
• http://chneukirchen.github.com/sabotage/
• http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/pipelogic/index.php
• Free Data Structures eBook: http://dotnetslackers.com/Community/files/folders/data-structures-and-algorithms/entry30283.aspx
• Polyphasic Sleep and Napping
  • http://priceonomics.com/the-nasa-studies-on-napping/
  • http://www.opinionspost.com/longevity-greek-island-way/
  • http://io9.com/the-science-behind-power-naps-and-why-theyre-so-damne-1401366016
• Brain Hacks
  • http://www.cracked.com/article_20166_5-brain-hacks-that-give-you-mind-blowing-powers.html?wa_user1=4&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended
• BASH sockets
  • http://hacktux.com/bash/socket
  • http://terminallinux.org/p/69/
• Debian Jessie daily builds (June 25th): http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/amd64/20140625-00:18/netboot/gtk/debian-installer/amd64/
• NFSv4: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NFSv4Howto
• Nettle/libhogweed crypto: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/nettle/nettle.html#Example
• Debian RAMdisks: http://reboot.pro/topic/14547-linux-load-your-root-partition-to-ram-and-boot-it/
• Zeo
  • https://forum.quantifiedself.com/showthread.php?tid=1421
  • http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t98659/New-Zeo-Sleep-Monitor-for-Bedside-Units.html
  • https://github.com/zeoeng/zeo-android-api
  • http://eric-blue.com/2013/06/09/life-beyond-zeo/

I finally got around to setting up a bootable USB thumb drive with the OpenBSD 5.7 installer. Quite useful instructions were found at:

• http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20140225072408

To summarize, first we “local loopback” attach and mount the 5.7 downloaded ISO:

# vnconfig vnd0 install57.iso
# mount /dev/vnd0a /mnt

Next, we created the destination image (will will be written to the flash drive). The ISO was 219MB, I made the image 256MB, although we could easily have cut it far closer to 220MB):

# dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1m count=256

Local loopback attach our newly created image file:

# vnconfig vnd1 disk.img

Partition, slice, and format the disk image in accordance with OpenBSD preferences (I rather enjoyed the echo line automating the disklabel session… another reason why I love that “everything is a file”):

# fdisk -i vnd1
# echo "a\n\n\n\n\nw\nq\n" | disklabel -E vnd1 
# newfs /dev/rvnd1a

And mount it:

# mkdir /mnt2
# mount /dev/vnd1a /mnt2

Copy the installer:

# cp -r /mnt/* /mnt2/

Make it bootable (this method only applicable for OpenBSD 5.5 and newer, previous versions had at least 2 steps):

installboot -r /mnt2 vnd1 /usr/mdec/biosboot /usr/mdec/boot

Penultimately, wrap everything up (unmount and detach):

# umount /mnt
# umount /mnt2
# vnconfig -u vnd1
# vnconfig -u vnd0

Finally, actually write it (I did this on a Linux box, as my OpenBSD box is on a rather raw VM):

# dd if=disk.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

I recalled some vague and increasingly distant thoughts over how difficult this once seemed… raw write an image to a device? That needed special tools… nope, just do a low-level binary write… everything is a file.

Should be good to go.

To avoid manually saying 'n' everyday, I have placed the upgraded ldap packages on hold on those two machines (I suspect auth1 is similar).

I noticed there was grub-level config support for specifying sysvinit instead of the default (systemd), so I specified sysvinit. Rebooted data2 a couple times to make sure everything was working as it should.

I cleared out upwards to 100GB of no-longer-needed user homedir backups. I really should deploy an auto-pruning script once again.

One of my summer projects, especially with the anticipated LAIR move, is to update the routers… possibly into just one box, on one of the i5 boxes donated recently. Using OpenBSD 5.7, and running the system out of RAM, much in the same way data1/data2 operate (might as well, I've got enough RAM in it).